


she asked me.

by heartbeatslows



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: F/F, Royalty AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 17:18:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17268197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartbeatslows/pseuds/heartbeatslows
Summary: Queen Elise and her advisor Violet try to clear up what they are.  Oneshot.





	she asked me.

**Author's Note:**

> Gift for @glowstickia for Tumblr Paranatural Secret Santa! Hope you like it!

 "Oh, Violet, my dear," Queen Elise murmured, "to rule is to receive one's demise."

The queen's throne room was empty at the moment, the enormous bare floor below the dais seeming greater for its tiles. The black-and-white marble – the same colors used for the drapes, the pale stained glass, the queen's tight-bodice dress, the throne – was cut at a slant, so that the queen appeared even further away than she truly was, her magnificent mother-of-pearl throne larger than life. The guard opposite was nothing if not stoic, and yet even he was often struck by the largeness the queen seemed to project.

Only Violet, who leaned nonchalantly against the arm of the throne, could see the creases in Elise's brow, the slightest flicker in her piercing eyes. Only she could see Elise's doubt. Violet, clothed in the signature mauve from which she took her name, was at once a spot of color in a deceptively monochromatic hall and a point of synchronicity: the cloth, all dark, spoke well to Elise's black and white.

She left a beat before she spoke. "Awesome," she replied, her vision cast vaguely over the throne room. "Assurance of death and stuff.  Takes all the speculation out of it."

Violet could hear the smile in Elise's voice. "Yes, it is a familiar friend, the inevitability of death and whatnot."

Violet snorted. "'Whatnot.'"

"Indeed."

She lifted her glass upside down, trying to get the last dregs out. Empty. Standing this long always took it out of her.

At the same time that she lifted her arm to call the page over for drinks, Elise opened her mouth to speak. "Violet – "

"Huh?" She turned her head, but Elise's eyes were already on the approaching servant.  She kept still, her fingers drumming on the arm of the throne.

"Your drinks, ma'am," the boy said.

"Cheers, Collin.  Good stuff."  Violet lifted the glass, making eye contact with the boy just because she knew it made him uncomfortable, but her heart wasn't in it.  She cursed herself for not paying more attention, wishing she could hear what Elise wanted to say.

"Queen?" Violet prompted as soon as Collin was out of earshot. "You were saying something?"

"Hmm," Elise murmured. Her eyes traced the edge of her glass as she tilted it back and forth, letting the liquid inside just reach the edge before restoring the balance with a deft hand. It was the first time in a long time that Violet had seen her looking down. "I seek your counsel on something, Violet."

"Anything. You know me," Violet answered. _Anything_.

"Do you."  She paused, her eyes still conspicuously averted.  Her lower lip retreated for a brief moment before she spoke again. " _Think_  of me."

 _Constantly_.

Violet's heart whispered fiercely, but her lips were shut tight. The words that fell in this chamber held weight. Violet resented that about the room, about the moments that they spent together. She wasn't someone who had a way with words. In her more bitter moments, she wondered whether Elise kept her around to make herself look better, but she was wise enough to keep those thoughts far from her.

"I," Violet began, then cursed herself for fumbling. "Your Majesty."

"Violet." Elise arched a dark eyebrow at Violet. As she sipped her drink, she did not lower her gaze. Violet flushed. _That_  was the Elise she knew. Confident. Bold. Never easily impressed. Never hard to read, except when she wanted to be.

There had to be something Elise wanted from her, or she wouldn't keep calling her here.  To think she was the one Elise came to for answers. And she had nothing.

Her eyes flitted away from Elise's. Violet coughed and sipped her drink, straightening her shirt collar as though she could pretend she just had some sort of sore throat. Elise was still watching her, but her hands had gone still now, the drink forgotten. Time had passed since she'd asked her question.

 _And I have nothing to say._  Violet didn't have a joke; she didn't have a quip. She didn't have a way to turn this back around. She had no pretty packaging in which to frame – the truth.  But she had the truth.

She hiked up her leg onto the arm of the chair, startling Elise with her closeness, and her eyes were fierce and passionate when she spoke.

" _Yes_."

Elise blinked.

Their faces were close. Violet's unguarded mien hovered nose-to-nose with Elise's stunned still mask, color spreading across both of their cheeks. Elise exhaled, Violet felt her breath on her lips, and with the shocked stillness as of someone reclaiming something long renounced, Elise's mouth broke into a slow, honest smile.

Violet brought her hand up to Elise's chin and lifted.

 

Across the hall, the tall guard blinked and stood a little straighter, looking uneasily at the page.

"Don't look at me," Collin shrugged.  "I make minimum wage."


End file.
